Mid-decade redistricting

The 2026 House races are the first test of the 2025 redraws. Texas's new map bill, HB 4, was signed on 29 August 2025, and the Supreme Court cleared the resulting map for the midterms. California voters replied on 4 November 2025, approving legislature-drawn maps through 2030 with 64.4% of the vote. Missouri's HB 1, signed on 28 September 2025, was suspended by a referendum petition, and the state will vote on its 2022 lines. Virginia's top court struck down that state's redistricting amendment on 8 May 2026. By 25 September Cook Political Report counted 208 seats at least leaning Democratic against 205 leaning Republican.

The Constitution requires a census every ten years, and states usually redraw once after it. No federal law bars a second redraw. In LULAC v. Perry in 2006, which concerned Texas's 2003 redraw, a plurality of the Supreme Court wrote that neither the Constitution nor Congress prohibits Mid-decade redistricting, while the majority struck one district under the Voting Rights Act.

The real limits sit at state level: state constitutions, state courts and referendum rules decide whether a mid-decade map survives, which is why the 2025 redraws met such different fates.